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now's not the time to slam on the brakes. now's the time to step on the gas. >> as a reminder, the white house posted a ticking clock on its website as a countdown continues to a deal. joining me now is former white house press secretary and obama campaign adviser robert gibbs. good morning. >> good morning. >> let's talk about this speech. the white house says the president's been working on it for more than a month. i'm reading this is a make-or-break moment. and the president likes to put it that way. that it's a make-or-break moment for the middle class. is it? >> there's no question about it. the defining issue of our time is middle class economic security. i think you can look at a ton of statistics from the recession and one of the things that -- many of the things that stand out, people that have lost jobs during the recession, the new jobs that they've been fortunate enough to get pay on average about 20% less than the jobs that they had. more people were likely to see their incomes decline after the

quote, unquote recession ended than during the recession. for millions of those in the middle class, they're no longer sure if they work hard and play by the rules, they'll have opportunity to get ahead. and they're not sure they're going to pass on to their children a country has more opportunity for them than it did for their parents. >> it is fascinating politically, though, isn't it, that that ought to speak to strength for the republican party? it obviously is still what they think that they can gain traction on, is putting all that on president obama. and yet somehow they have found themselves in a position of -- at least some of them, being against extending the payroll tax cut. >> two things -- one, as you said, the republicans have spent a lot of time talking to voters but not talking to anybody really in the middle class. their economic plans are tilted toward big corporations and the wealthy.

i think that's the biggest thing that they've spent their time working on. and i think the payroll tax is a great example. 160 million people are going to see their taxes go up on the 1st of the year unless congress works together to get something done. that shouldn't be hard. we shouldn't be raising taxes on middle class families. if there was as much excitement for cutting taxes for the middle class as there was in the republican party for cutting taxes for people that make $1 million a year, this wouldn't be an argument. but the problem is there are a lot of people in the republican party that simply don't want to see this tax cut go forward because they don't believe in tax cuts for the middle class. >> where are you going to be on december 27th with your bowl of popcorn on the 27th? >> i'm hoping it's on pay-per-view. >> donald trump moderates the debate. >> i would say it's a circus. but i took my son to see the

circus earlier this year and i thought it was a wonderful thing. i have to tell you, i have never seen a group of people basically kowtow to somebody who has no natural constituency. i think it is a remarkable thing. >> newt gingrich who was just in new york city yesterday going and paying his visit to donald trump. >> all you have to know is this -- remember the story of when mitt romney came to see donald trump? ask anybody in the video library here to find you footage of that media. >> so low key. >> they went in the back door. the press aide was standing out in front with the press while he's taking an elevator up the back. that tells you all you need to know -- well, tells you a lot about mitt romney and also about the process of getting -- >> it says something about newt gingrich. here is the fascinating thing, i think, of the many fascinating things that happened in this campaign. he was left for dead.

and here he is, the latest poll in iowa, strongly ahead. >> right. >> strongly surging in national polls, strongly surging in a number of key states. what's going on? >> well, i think he has run a smart campaign in the sense of this has been a campaign define bd i debates. this has been televised national debates. he's a very good debater. he's very quick and glib. he loves to attack the media, which the republican base also loves. he has laid off attacking his opponents. i think that's another thing that the base loves. they want to see a bunch of different potential nominees. they done want to see one person just try to tear down one other person. so i think he's had an interesting and unique and smart

strate strategy. i think people woke up this weekend throughout the country and realized that newt gingrich is very real. >> thanks to robert gibbs. i want to bring in jean cummings and liz sodati. good morning to both of you. >> good morning, chris. >> good morning. >> jean, you heard robert gibbs. he says gingrich is for real. the latest iowa polls show him pulling ahead and newt gingrich is, according to those voters, the candidate they trust most on the economy. why? what do you think is going on? >> well, i think that gingrich is surging right at the correct moment. if he can win fast, i think he has very much an opportunity and a very serious shot at winning the nomination. if you look at the polling numbers, the voters trust him in ways because they're familiar with him. he has a long history. he has political experience.

they know that. he's spent his years out of office taking on a high-profile role on issue debates and also on conservative talk shows in which he's been able to have a dialogue with them for quite some time. so he's a familiar character. >> to robert gibbs' point, he's done pretty well in these debates although many argue that mitt romney has won which brings us to the interesting question, since the debates have been so consequential on the republican side -- and maybe you can extrapolate that they'll be important in the general election after the conventions -- take a look at the potential match-ups for me. what about a gingrich/obama debate versus a romney/obama debate? >> it's going to be very fascinating. newt gingrich is a college professor at heart. what he loves to do is talk about policy and wrestle with very, very big issues. sometimes that gets him in trouble because, as we saw with his comments about child

janitors or his suggestion that children as young as 9 should work in schools as janitors, is he throws out ideas and then he wants to wrestle with them. and sometimes it moves outside of conservative orthodoxy or he gets into an issue that's a little tricky. >> mitt romney seems to be so much more low key or talking-point generated. >> they are very different characters. they would be very different debates. that's one of the reasons that gingrich is rising, that distinction. gingrich would be a fighter. he would go at obama in the debates. he's quick-whited. it would be a very sharp debate. romney's much cooler. that's one of the things republican voters in iowa and new hampshire have wrestled with because they don't feel the passion from him that they feel inside in terms of how much they want to defeat president obama. i think they see in gingrich more of a fighter and not so

much in romney. >> it's clear, though, that the dnc at least at this point is really focusing on mitt romney. they just put out another video this morning. >> you would be okay with seeing the payroll tax cut -- >> i don't think little band-aids. >> what's your position on extending this payroll tax cut? >> well, i would like to see the payroll tax cut extended. >> do you think we'll see the dnc and the white house continue to focus on mitt romney or are they going to have to shift gears and look at this new frontrunner now? >> right. well, i think what the white house is doing is looking at many different factors when they decide who to go after. at the end of the day, romney still leads in money and he still leads in campaign organization. so i think they're still going to be heavily focused on romney. but it's very clear that they're paying attention -- look at what

gibbs said a few minutes ago. it's clear they're paying attention to gingrich and think that he might have staying power. i think they ignore him at their own peril because he really could have staying power. look at the polls. this is a two-man race and it will be at least for the next few weeks. >> liz and jeanne, thanks to both of you. can congress really get this payroll tax deal past? we'll have chris van holland. that's coming up in five minutes. afghanistan is reeling from a series of deadly attacks today targeting minority shiite worshippers on an important religious day. a suicide bomber killed at least 55 people at a mosque in kabul. another four were killed when a bomb strapped to a bicycle exploded next to a group of cars packed with people celebrating. nato president karzai and military leaders issued a statement condemning the attacks. the head of the federal

aviation administration is on leave right now while the agency decides what to do about his newly revealed drunk driving arrest. police say they spotted him driving on the wrong side of the road in virginia on saturday. as faa chief, babbitt has cracked down on pilots flying under the influence. the white house press secretary said the president reacted to babbitt's arrest, quote, as you might expect. oil or cream? cream. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. rx plan gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003.

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now love lost between newt gingrich and nancy pelosi. in the ongoing battle of the former speakers, well, first pelosi said she'd reveal damaging material about newt when the time is right. out of thousands of pages of documents from a congressional ethics investigation. >> i want to thank speaker pelosi for what i regard as an early christmas gift.

>> in what sense? >> she's suggesting she's going to use material she developed when she was on the ethics committee? that is a fundamental violation of the rules of the house. i would hope the members of the house would immediately file charges against her the second she does it. >> michele bachmann says neither mitt romney or newt gingrich are real conservatives. >> he is no overweight. what you're seeing right now is an ability that he has to be able to project himself as a conservative. but there's nothing to back it up. it's the same as mitt romney. you hear it in the debates over and over. you'd think these guys have been the standard-bearer for the conservative movement in the republican party. but they're the great pretendernesses. they're frugal socialists. >> mitt romney spent $100,000 to replace the computers at his office, according to reuters. they say the move was highly unusual and done to keep his records secret. and romney criticized the president at a teletown hall in iowa for planning to go to his home state of hawaii for the

holidays. >> in some respects his idea of a hands-on approach to the economy is getting a grip on his golf club. he told congress that they need to stay in session and pass his tax breaks for the payroll tax and that they shouldn't leave for vacation until they did that and yet he's going off for 17 days and for golf in the sun. and i just think it's time to have a president whose idea of being hands-on does not mean getting a better grip on the golf club. >> there are just a few weeks left until that tax hike hits working americans and all signs are pointing to yet another last-minute showdown in washington. the president will deliver a major speech on the economy this afternoon trying to up the pressure on republicans. i'm joined now by democratic congressman chris van holland of maryland, former chair of the democratic national campaign committee. good morning. >> good morning. >> the president revealed the debt clock countdown yesterday.

there's no shortage of high-profile finger-pointing. can congress get this done? >> we have to get it done. if we don't get it done before the holidays, beginning january 1st, you're going to have 160 million americans -- every working american is going to see an increase in their payroll tax if we don't extend and bump up the payroll tax cut as the president's proposed. we put a lot of proposals on the table. we're hoping our republican colleagues will join with us to get it done. >> newt gingrich and mitt romney also say, by the way that, they favor the payroll tax extensions. so if these republicans, the two frontrunners on the republican trail find that this is a politically helpful position, why aren't there more electeds on board? why do you think this fight is going on? >> that's a very good question. it's good to see mitt romney finally coming on board on this issue after waffling for a very long time. obviously he realized that it would be a mistake not to do this. i'm glad he got to that point.

i hope that will help convince some of his republican colleagues up here on capitol hill. as you know, there was a republican counterproposal in the senate very recently and it did not even get a majority of the republican votes. democrats now are putting on the table their second proposal to extend the payroll tax holiday for every worker and to bump it up a little bit, they scaled back the overall size of the package. it's totally paid for over the budget period. so, again, we hope as we count down toward the end of this month that our republican colleagues will join with us. >> even as you make this fairness argument -- among those who support it is gingrich and his campaign is on fire -- he is not backing down, not one bit, on his idea that poor kids should become janitors in their schools. and let me play just a little bit of one of his defenses of the plan. >> what if they cleaned out the bathrooms and what if they mopped the floors?

what if they in that process were actually learning to work, learning to earn money. they didn't have to become a pimp or a prostitute or a drug dealer >> your reaction to that? >> well, this is part of newt gingrich's sort of twisted thinking. and unfortunately even when given a chance to retract his comments, he doubled down on them. the reality of the day is that poor kids try and work very hard. the reason poor kids are having trouble these days is not for lack of work. it's because of lack of job opportunities. particularly in many neighborhoods around the country where you have higher levels of unemployment even than the high national average. so let's get to work trying to make sure that we create jobs rather than blaming people who can't find jobs that don't even exist. and it's part of the blame game that newt gingrich has engaged in throughout his political

career to try and divide people, when, in fact, people who are poor are out there looking for work and it's not for lack of looking. it's for lack of jobs out there. let's solve that problem. >> we're out of time. but i want to ask you really quickly, given your experience, given what you know about what's going on there, what's the percentage chance you think this payroll tax cut is going to be extended? is it going to happen? >> i think there's a very good chance. i think ultimately our republican colleagues will come on board. they've moved from opposing it totally to saying that they want to work with us to find a way to get it done. but you have to get it done in a way that's fair. they continue to resist the idea of asking the very wealthiest americans to share more in the responsibility for getting the economy moving for everybody. people who are doing very well, even in this down economy, should help share in that responsibility. while the republicans did not want to increase -- preserve the

payroll tax cut for working americans for a very long time, they have worked very hard to extend the tax cuts for the people at the top. >> congressman chris van hollen, good to see you, thanks. occupy wall street is turning to its next frontier, foreclosed homes. the group marking the beginning of the occupy our homes campaign today with a big day of action in 20 cities around the country. protesters plan to reclaim houses that banks are leaving vacant and defend foreclosed properties. organizers are hoping to focus attention on the foreclosure crisis that they say was caused by wall street overprofiting. time for the your business entrepreneur of the week. rachel weekes, ceo of schoolhouse was manufacturing her products in sri lanka. she partnered with a durham, north carolina, factory. she plans on continuing her

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independent. >> i believe that the presidency of the united states of america is beyond reality shows, matt. this is a joke. you have two or three people go on and then mr. trump will weigh in in terms of who he wants to support. this is about politics as show business. >> that's jon huntsman. e.j. dionne joins us. >> good to see you. >> let me play what some of the other candidates have to say about the debate. >> i was happy to sit on the sidelines and not do it. but when the guys ahead in the poll says he's going to be there, i'm not going to let that stage to him. >> i like donald trump. he's a lot of fun. i've met him many times and he's a wonderful guy. i think newt gingrich is the only one who's accepted the invitation for that -- >> will you? >> we're still in the process of looking at it. >> is this like a reality show 2012 style? what's going on here, e.j.? >> this is one of the strangest

races i have ever seen. i think the maverick conservative writer david frum writing in "new york" magazine had it write, the conservatism which was one a serious intellectual movement is in danger of become a niche market, the same niche occupied by fox news and the conservative radio hosts. i've been trying to think back because it's such an odd campaign for historical comparisons. one is just on the reality of what's happening. it feels a little like 1972. ed musky was the safe democratic candidate. he's a little bit like mitt romney who was the safe republican candidate. but the party couldn't fall in love with musky and they learned to george mcgovern. >> and look what happened there. >> look what happened there. i think newt is a little bit in the role of george mcgovern, not to offend everybody involved. but the other one i've been thinking about is 1980 when you

had a very serious argument among serious republicans. you had ronald reagan representing the very conservative position, although not as conservative as today's conservatives. you had george h.w. bush, the elder bush, a moderate conservatism. you had john anderson who later ran as a third-party candidate. that was a very serious argument about serious things among serious people. this race just doesn't look like that at all. >> speaking of not looking like that, can i play for you a clip of newt gingrich with donald trump? >> donald trump is a great showman. he's also a great businessman. we had a great conversation about it. i'm a big fan of his. he was in our last movie "city upon a hill" and did a great job. >> we're going to be picking ten young wonderful children. and we're going to make them apprenti. we're going to have a little fun with it. >> you want to be an apprenti.

>> i'm a little out of the age group. but he's going to take ten kids -- newt gingrich is going to put them to work as janitors but donald trump is going to give them the opportunity to be apprenti. you're right. has this sort of become a joke? where is the seriousness about this? as robert gibbs was saying this morning on this program, donald trump doesn't really have a constituency, does he? why are all these people going of donald trump. >> he doesn't have a constituency but he does have some ratings, again, going to that niche market thing. on a serious note, the problem with what newt is saying is he's implying that most poor people in the country don't have a work ethic. most poor people in the country work, that needs to be on the table. but newt spoke one great truth in that sound bite. he said donald trump is a showman. that's exactly what he is. what you're going to see are republicans going to that debate who think they can get some ratings and some attention and

another group of republicans like jon huntsman and we'll see what mitt romney does who think they can profit from the anti-trump feeling in the republican party. one poll i saw showed there's more anti-trump feeling than pro-trump feeling. i think those are the two calculations that these republicans are going to be making. >> e.j., we'll have many more interesting conversations ahead, i predict and i fear, in some cases. great of you to come on. thank you so much. >> great to be with you. thank you. which republican political wife is described by one prominent republican as very hillary-like? ♪ ♪ mom? dad? guys? [ engine turns over ] [ engine revs ] ♪ he'll be fine. [ male announcer ] more people are leaving bmw, mercedes, and lexus for audi than ever before. take advantage of exceptional values

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try bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. welcome back to "jansing & co." i'm weather channel meteorologist carl parker. it's going to be very wet for a lot of the east. the rain is coming down along the 81 corridor. rain coming into the atlanta metro, right up 81. very wet drive today. same story in d.c. and getting up into philly as well. we will see pretty heavy rain

the next couple of days. parts of north carolina, virginia, richmond up into the delmarva, 2 inches of wet weather on the way. i also want to show you what's going on with the novell on the back side of the system. snow developing in the app applications. that will move up, heavy, wet snow in the poconos and the catskills. that's mid and early thursday morning it will largely be gone by the time most of you are driving to work. but there could be several inches of snow. a wet and warm one. 71 in raleigh, 69 in atlanta. on the back side of that, chilly weather. 19 in minneapolis. 41 in dallas. quiet in the west for the most part. we have problems on the roads there with winter weather in new mexico. 27 today and 64 in los angeles. >> 64, not bad. carl, thank you. here's a look at some other

stories people are talking about right now. the future of former illinois govern rod blagojevich is being decided today at his sentencing for corruption convictions including trying to sell president obama's old senate seat. the judge will first have to decide whether blagojevich led a criminal conspiracy to try to bring in tainted campaign money. if he did, he could get up to life in prison and prosecutors will argue for 15 to 20 years. blagojevich's lawyers say after a life of public service, he deserves leniency, even probation. bp is accusing halliburton of destroying damaging evidence that halliburton is to prove for last year's oil spill. they say they suppressed computer evidence that could be used against them. halliburton says bp's charges are, quote, without merit. could there be another earth? nasa dwovred a planet outside our solar sam that likely has water and rock and a surface

temperature near 72 degrees. but astronomers say it may be a bit to big for life to exist with a rocky core and mostly ocean. the countdown is on. 28 days until the iowa caucuses, just 35 until the first primary in new hampshire. we need to check the ground game in the big states. here's mark murray. mark, good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> big news. what's the poll in south carolina say? >> it says the newt surge is continuing. it's the freshest sign yet that the newt momentum is pushing ahead, chris. gingrich has almost a 2-to-1 lead over mitt romney in the state. the winner of the south carolina primary since 1980 has gone on to win the republican nomination. >> let's talk about the other big news, mitt romney going to add to his endorsements today. seems like we get, what, three or four or five press releases on that every day. but this one's coming from arizona.

>> it is coming from arizona. and he's going to get the endorsement from former vice president dan quayle. it's yet another sign that the establishment in the republican party is starting to rally around mitt romney. the question for mitt romney with a month to go before iowa, is that establishment enough? >> and let's check the battleground state of pennsylvania. that's very key for president obama. >> absolutely, chris. there was a reason why president obama was in scranton, pennsylvania, last week. if president obama ends up losing pennsylvania -- and his numbers right now are under water there -- after winning that state by ten percentage points in 2008, if he's unable to get -- to win that, that really hurts his map to get to 270 electoral votes. >> and no check is complete without iowa? >> iowa, iowa, iowa, chris. one interesting thing about iowa, don't lose sight of ron paul. new abc/"washington post" post,

ron paul was tied with mitt romney, in second place. identical to what our nbc marist poll of iowa found, as well as des moines register. don't lose sight on paul. he's going to be a factor in iowa as well as other states. >> mark, great to see you. thanks. the relationship that nearly ended newt gingrich's political career could turn into one of his biggest assets in the political race. the couple have been married for 11 years. she went to college in iowa. newt says his wife would be a truly iconic first lady. >> she actually describes herself as sort of being a cross between nancy reagan and laura bush with just a slight bit of jackie kennedy tossed in. i think swirling in there, there's the model that she would like to live up to. >> dan stone joins us. the december 12th issue of "newsweek" on sale now.

good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> newt and callista are joined at the hip. >> this is a really interesting dynamic. callista gingrich is very unique in this gop field. no one else we know is as engaged with his or her husband, her spouse as callista gingrich. she's in involved of every part of newt gingrich's business empire as well as his political dealings. we remember that episode earlier in the spring when a lot of newt gingrich's staff left, a lot of that was over decisions that were made between newt and callista about how the campaign should proceed. >> they went on that fancy mediterranean cruise when a lot of people working for him thought he ought to be pounding the pavement and knocking on doors. and of course we can't talk about this without the infamous tiffany's account and the line of credit. so what does she bring in a positive way to this campaign? does the campaign staff see her as a positive?

>> that's one of the really interesting points. for reporters, we don't exactly know exactly what role she plays. she's very quiet, very stealth. she doesn't do a lot of interviews or make public statements. but she is very trusted by the candidate himself. that's what matters. we've heard anecdotes of friction between her and senior campaign aides that have different visions about what mr. gingrich should be talking about and where he should be going. he clearly trusts her a lot. >> his supporters say there's a redemption angle to all this, that he's really turned a corner, obviously, he says he's very committed to her. she was behind his conversion to catholici catholicism, right? >> she's the reason he converted to catholicism in 2009. this is his third marriage. but they seem very committed. it's hard to show up at an event in washington and not see callista by his side.

they're very public in that way. it's a very public and seemingly very cohesive marriage. >> dan stone, thank you so much. >> thanks, chris. we could be in for a rocky ride on wall street today after standard & poor's warned 15 european country that is it could downgrade their credit ratings within the next 90 days. mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. how are the markets reacting right now? >> the interesting thing here is that you could say at this stage, they're really taking it in their stride. i don't think anyone was particularly surprised that this was going to happen. perhaps the only surprise was the inclusion of germany and france, which, of course, have been europe's strongest economies. but nonetheless, standard & poor's criticized their handling of the debt crisis. the s&p warning left out only two of the 17 countries that yooud use the euro. you have cyprus and then greece whose low ratings already suggest they are likely to

default soon anyway. those are the reasons those two were left off the map. >> let's talk about the charges -- when you go to an atm and it's not your banks. now there's somebody who thinks they've found a way around it. >> this is an interesting story. atm users could soon be able to opt out of those annoying atm surcharges by agreeing to watch an advertisement in about the same amount of time that it takes just for a typical transaction. the company creates an atm that uses targeted advertisements to cover the cost of the surcharge of an atm outside of the normal network. you might have already seen some banks show advertisements on atms for their own products or their own mortgage rates. but free atms nyc offers local deals to businesses where those atms are placed. if you choose not to view the ad, you have to pay the surcharge of about $3. if it was me, i'd be quite happy to watch the ad. >> ten seconds for three bucks,

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one-third of teens say they use the pill solely for nonpregnancy-related reasons. i'm thomas robert, in the next hour of msnbc, president obama and his make-or-break moment for the middle class. will working families see the payroll tax cut in the new year? and the dreaded "f" word, yeah, i'm going to say it, flip-floppers. who does the shoe fit in the race in the gop race? and is the voter battle disenfranchising college students when it comes to voter id. we'll talk about getting younger voters registered and ready to vote. that and more in the next hour. there are some disturbing findings from a new investigation into presidential pardons. whites who apply for a pardon for a criminal conviction over the past decade have been almost four times as likely to get one as blacks and other minorities. the results stunned the obama justice department whose record is similar to what happened under george bush.

thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> i have to believe just like the obama administration, you guys are pretty surprised at the findings? >> we were. it took a year. we had to find every single person in our sample who had been denied, figure out what their race was, all kinds of things about them, their offense, their sentence and even other things that surprised us, like are they married? if you're married, you're twice as likely to get a presidential pardon or if you have a member of congress in your corner, you're three times as likely to get a pardon. >> the interesting or sad thing about this is that both presidents bush and obama are following the recommendations of the office of the pardon attorneys because they wanted to eliminate the appearance of bias after bill clinton got into some trouble for particularly one pardon. so i guess they took themselves out of it, but what happened? >> right.

it's tremendous irony in that they -- exactly as you said, they wanted to keep the appearance of favoritism out of the process. and this pardon office, which is so responsible for doing every kind of recommendation and the presidents are following them really to the "t." and these are the results. they're just preselecting mostly white applicants for presidential forgiveness. this is just an act of forgiveness that is not available to minorities. >> let me show you the numbers so people understand. out of more than 1,000 cases, president obama has only pardoned 22 people, but just two of those were minorities. and he promised pardon reform, obviously. but that hasn't happened. president bush in the meantime, i got these backwards, issued decisions on more than 1,900 cases. he pardoned 189 people. all but 13 of them were white. what needs to change? >> what was really stark on bush's numbers, 34 pardons for drug offenses, all white.

not one single minority even for a drug offense. the obama people looked at some pardon reform but what you can do here, which obama has not been able to do with other things, this is a strictly presidential power. he doesn't need congress to make a change here. he can make changes through executive order. it's his power. this is one place he could really make a difference if he doesn't want to end his term with similar results to president bush. >> dafna, thank you so much. >> thanks, chris. and let's go to the tweet of the day. it comes from chuck todd. newt-mentum continues no questioning now whether gingrich is the frontrunner. savannah guthrie retweeted him, what's old is newt again. thank you, savannah. nyquil: you know i relieve coughs, sneezing, fevers? tylenol: me, too. and nasal congestion.

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let's go down to the wire. rosie o'donnell is getting hitched again. the talk show host engaged to her give, michelle rounds. the couple met at starbucks earlier this year. o'donnell and her former partner, kelly carpenter, split in 2007 after three years of marriage. retailer h & m is getting into a public relations battle after admitting it used models' heads on computer-generated bodies. you can see some of the models have the exact same pose and proportions. a spokesman says h & m wanted to send a message to buy our clothes, not our models. amanda knox is one step closer to writing a book. she's hired a washington, d.c. attorney to help her land a book deal. he's represented presidents clinton, obama and bush. some pet owners are taking the holiday spirit a bit too far.

this is the happy dog spa in north carolina where snooki is getting a red coat for the holidays. it's called dog dyeing. but cats can be dyed as well. but why? a secret santa is revealed in maryland. matt learner donated five gold coins from south africa to salvation army kettles. each one worth almost two grand. and a florida man buys a filing cabinet from washington for his mom. he opens it up and finds a suitcase full of $3,000 worth of football and baseball cards. that wraps up this hour of "jansing & co." i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. and at 1:00 p.m., a special "andrea mitchell reports" live from tel aviv, israel. i'll see you tomorrow. there's a new toothpaste that says it has

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invoking teddy roosevelt. president obama hits the road heading to republican country, kansas, to sell his middle class message to the american people. newt gingrich on a role. he's now the clear frontrunner in iowa and a new poll has hymn him surging ahead in south carolina. is newt dead-on when he calls himself the republican nominee? they're calling it a major milestone in the search for the earth's twin, the first planet in the inhabitable zone is raising the question, are there many earths out there? we'll explore today. hi, everybody. great to have you with me. i'm thomas roberts. president obama is hoping to follow in the footsteps of president teddy roosevelt today when he delivers a major economic speech in the same city where 100 years ago roosevelt made his famous call for a new nationalism. the president will focus on income inequality, the very issue that's gotten the 99% so riled up this year and a call on

congress to pass a payroll tax extension. >> i know many republicans have sworn an oath never to raise taxes as long as they live. how can it be the only time there's a catch is when it comes to raising taxes on middle class families? how can you fight tooth and nail to protect high-end tax cuts for the wealthiest of americans and raise taxes on 160 million americans who need the hell snp it doesn't make sense. >> to underscore the president's point, the white house has put a countdown clock on its website. kristen welker is live at the white house for thus morning. kristen, this trip is truly steeped in history. what do we expect from the president? what do we want to hear him say today? >> reporter: president obama will be speaking from the republican stronghold of kansas. he will, as you said, press congress to pass an extension